One Step Closer
by Punk Trash Noiz
Summary: The Disciple's thoughts on The Signless and how he changed her life. Written for a friend.


**A/N: I've never written a fanfic with the Ancestors before so this was kind of hard. Especially since there isn't much known about them! But this ship is my friend Brittney's OTP so I gave it a try. :3 I listened to A Thousand Years pt 2 while writing this.**

The Disciple had never been too concerned over filling her quadrants. Olive bloods like her were often solitary, and she had always been content with only the company of her lusus. She came across other trolls occasionally, but they never stayed for long. She scared them, with her wild hair, and wild eyes, and her overall wild demeanor. It didn't bother her, though. All she needed was her lusus and her forest. She never even had a name to go by. She didn't need one.

All that changed when he came into her life. She had heard whispers of a troll with mutant blood, a troll who challenged the system. She never would have thought that she would get involved in all that. She always thought she would live out her life in her forest. But then she met him, and she knew she could never again be content with her life. She knew that her old life was no more the second she laid eyes on him. She had been frozen in fear of these foreign feelings within her, and she had held her breath, half-hoping that he would continue on his way and not notice her. She should have known that wouldn't happen.

She was shocked when he looked at her without any trace of fear or nerves in his brilliant red eyes. He spoke to her as if she were normal, and he treated her with such kindness that she had no idea how to respond. She answered his questions in short, awkward sentences. She wasn't all that used to speaking, after all. When he asked what her name was, she stared at him in despair. She didn't want to disappoint this strange, kind troll by being unable to give him a satisfactory answer.

"Do you not have a name?" he asked after a few moments of silence. She nodded her head, and he just smiled at her. "That's alright. Maybe I can help you find one." In his words was a hidden offer, an offer to come with him. She wasn't sure what he would want a troll like her for, but she left her forest with him that day, and never looked back.

She learned that he was called the Signless, and that he had… a mother, called the Dolorosa. The olive blood was unfamiliar with this term he used, and was shocked to learn that he had been raised by a troll. It was absolutely unheard of, and it was as unnatural as his bright red blood. Still, she accepted his words. The Dolorosa intimidated her at first, and the olive blood felt like nothing next to the tall, beautiful, and elegant jade blood. But the Dolorosa welcomed her, and the olive blood grew to like her.

She also learned that the Signless had a lot to say about troll society. She listened as he spoke words that could get him killed, and it both thrilled and scared her. Still, she listened with open ears, and she listened so well and so eagerly that she earned herself a name: the Disciple. She felt so proud to have a name, and she loved hearing him speak it. "My Disciple", he always said.

The Disciple didn't know when she fell in love with the Signless. Love was another word he taught her, one that was more potent and more powerful than the words used to describe quadrants. The Signless loved in ways that transcended the Quadrants. He loved his mother in a way that could never fit into a quadrant, and he loved the Disciple in a completely different, but equally important way. She wasn't used to intimacy of any kind, but the Signless was patient. She soon grew to love having contact with him. Sometimes they would just lay together in each other's arms, relishing in the warmth and love radiating from the other. Other times they explored each other's bodies, and showed their love through touches and kisses.

The Disciple never regretted leaving her forest. Her time with the SIgnless, the Dolorosa, and the Psiionic (who joined them later) was amazing and exciting, and brought meaning into her life. She couldn't even regret it when she watched her lover be executed, or his mother be sold into slavery, or his best friend be given a fate far worse than death. She alone escaped, with nothing but his leggings and her memories.

Although she had lived most of her life alone, going back to that life didn't feel like living. She knew what living was like, and when her Signless died, she died with him. She lived only because that was what he would want for her, but when she finally died, she only felt relief.

The Disciple opened her eyes in whatever sort of afterlife this was, and he was waiting for her. She smiled and took his hand, and never looked back.

**A/N: Please review! **


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